Habiba Shafey, Joseph Gurgis

While substantial research, training, and education efforts have sought to address maltreatment in sport, harmful experiences remain prevalent. In North America, emphasis on competition, winning, and the normalization of harmful coaching practices can contribute to environments where negative outcomes persist. By contrast, youth sport models in several Scandinavian contexts have been described as prioritizing inclusion, accessibility, social connection, and development, while still supporting long-term athlete pathways. These approaches align with a rights-based orientation to sport, in which participation is organized around protecting young people’s wellbeing and dignity. In this study, we explored how youth athletes, parents, and coaches within a Canadian youth sport organization understand and experience human rights in sport. Using a constructivist intrinsic case study design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants (youth athletes, parents, and coaches). Findings suggest that participants recognized the value of a rights-based approach, but also described tensions with prevailing cultural expectations that position winning as the primary marker of acceptable success. Participants’ accounts further highlighted how social pressures and shared values shape the design of youth sport environments, with implications for both positive experiences and harm. These findings suggest that preventing harm in youth sport requires cultural change that reduces performance pressures and strengthens the values and practices consistent with a human-rights framework.